updated 09:05 am EST, Tue December 7, 2010

Samsung may ship 18pc more phones, beat industry

Samsung could jump ahead of estimates and possibly the phone industry in 2011, a company official was reported as saying on Tuesday. South Korea's ET News quoted an unnamed official who said the company had an "internal goal" to ship 330 million cellphones next year, or an 18 percent jump over this year's estimated 280 million. Strategy Analytics and other firms had only estimated a seven percent jump, or no more than 295 million to 300 million.

The much higher performance would come from a shift towards higher-end phones. About 170 million would be touchscreen phones, 50 million of which would be smartphones like the Galaxy S series. It already leads the US Android sphere with 32.1 percent and is one of the most widely available Android devices anywhere, often shipping with multiple carriers in a single country.

Low-end smartphones would be a focus in 2011, the official said, and would represent about 30 million phones. Devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab would account for about 20 million units, helped in part by a 10-inch model.

Samsung hasn't commented on the accuracy of the estimate other than to

The figures could be enough to edge closer to Nokia. Finland's phone maker is likely to still have a wide lead and shipped 110.4 million phones this summer alone, but its share has been dropping as Samsung and other companies have been getting share, primarily through smartphones and high-end 'feature' phones. Much of its smartphone share has been bled away to Apple's iPhone and various manufacturers using Google's Android, primarily HTC and Motorola.